Unrealistic Expectations........

Why do we have unrealistic expectations for ourselves and for one another?  We expect too much from ourselves and one another.  We set unrealistic goals, and experience huge disappointments when others can't meet up to these expectations.  Now why did we need Jesus to come down to earth and give his life for us?  Because we are ALL sinners, and no matter how great we try to do things, we STILL fall short.  Where do we get off thinking we are better than others, or that there are different categories?  There are two categories we can place people into:  People that HAVE Jesus and People that DO NOT HAVE Jesus.  Did you notice anything about those two categories?  It is all about JESUS, and not ourselves!!!  This is why scripture says we cannot brag or boast, because it is not our doing, but HIS doing!!!  To put it in simple terms, if everyone was put into one great big boat, there wouldn't be sections of "college degree graduates/high school graduates/dropouts/ have a career/ unemployed/ owns a home/ rents a home/ etc."  God doesn't look at each of us and measure up to see what we did or what we have.  If you don't  have Jesus, he sees EVERYONE in the boat as Sinners.  God cannot look at Sin because he is perfect and this is why when Jesus took our sins on the cross, God had to turn away.  At that moment, Jesus had the weight of the worlds sins on his back, and his own Father had to turn away.  So since we know it is what Jesus did, then why do we get in our flesh and start thinking we are better than others?  This is a lie from the pit of hell, and many have fallen into Satan's trap.  What Satan wants to do is to have us so focused and driven on Earth here that we are constantly chasing after each goal and then when it is our time to die, everything we have worked for had NO EFFECT in Eternity.  So many people chase after riches and collect all of their treasures and then when they are no longer here, they leave EVERYTHING behind.  The biggest regret that people have on their death bed isn't "Wow, I wish I would of gotten that materialist possession."  There biggest regret is "Why didn't I spend more time with my loved ones, Why did I waste so much time working instead of spending time with my family?"  This is a sad reality that many will experience, and my heart aches for them.  Grab a hold of God and read his word and don't fall into Satan's trap.  Whenever you hear that little voice in your head that starts speaking to you and saying you have to have the next best thing, or you need to work more, etc.  You speak Gods Word and you take authority over the devil!!  We need to humble ourselves daily, which means we need to make things simple.  Do not conform to this world, do not try and fit in with this culture.  Remember that we are IN this world, not OF this world!!!

Beginning of 2014!!

Happy New Years everyone!!! I hope everyone had a great New Years, and has had a great start in 2014!!!  What is your resolution?  Many people make a resolution because a new year means a brand new start.  We are able to learn from the previous year and reflect on what we can do to improve next year. So what is yours?  Did you even make one?  I remember in my past my resolution was always to lose weight.  I have always wanted to improve myself physically and be strong, so that was a resolution that always repeated itself.  I can honestly say that my resolution this year is one that my Husband and I made together.  We have decided to read Gods Word together each night and discuss what we read.  In the past we have done this before but this is something that we would do on a nightly basis.  There are many nights to where we both read the Bible, but we are in different places.  We have really enjoyed doing this because we read the same passage and then we discuss it out loud.  I want to encourage you if you are married to start reading with your spouse, there really is something powerful about it when you both come together as one and submit yourselves to God and seek him in one accord.  On New Years Eve my family and I were all in bed way before midnight.  I could hear all of the fireworks go off at midnight, so I knew it was the start of a New Year!

I wanted to give some insight to everyone who is reading this.  Whatever your resolution is, ask yourself if it is eternal or temporal?  Many times we focus on things that only matter in "this world" and we know that everything will pass away.  So why do we spend so much time focusing on the "Now" and now "Eternity?"  I can tell you why..... because the devil keeps us busy and he keeps us deceived.  He shoves so much in our face, that we are constantly moving our heads and our eyes to keep up.  It can distract us, and if we are not careful we can slowly adapt to this culture.  We can slowly start to walk away from God and have our head in every other direction but up.  So it is the start of a brand new year, what are you believing God for?  We serve a God that can do ANYTHING and loves to show himself!  Take time each day and give God thanks and praise, for all that he has blessed you with.  We need to remind ourselves that it isn't our work, it is Gods work and it gives glory to him!!!

So I want to encourage everyone to take some time and reflect and see where you heart is at.  If you could work on one thing on the inside, what would it be?  Do you have a short temper?  Are you judgmental? Are you prideful? Stubborn?  These are fleshly traits that are in all of us, but if we seek God and submit these areas to him.  We need to expose these areas to him and repent so Gods light can shine on these dark areas and they can finally surface.  Happy New Years to you!!!! I pray blessing upon you and your loved ones and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ shines throughout the entire world this year like never before!!

Walking In Full Obedience.....

Let us look up the word "Obedience" in the dictionary and see the definition.  In the dictionary it says: Compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority.  So to be obedient we need to be under someones authority that we must submit to and lower ourselves to follow. So this means that we cannot be our own Masters of authority.  If we are Masters of ourselves then we wouldn't need to be obedient because we would be calling the shots and making the rules.  So when we read the Bible we read that Jesus says we are to follow him and deny ourselves daily!! So if we are to deny ourselves and follow someone then this means that he becomes Our Leader and he says what to do, and we follow.  We no longer try to talk over him and make the rules.  We humble ourselves and submit to him in full obedience.  Many people read this and it makes the hairs stand up on their head because people want to do what they want to do and not feel guilty about it.  They still want to have fun and call the shots and not have to answer for their actions.  Jesus is LOVE, and he is PEACE, and he is JOY.  Why wouldn't you want to follow these traits?  Jesus was the ULTIMATE leader!!!!  Wouldn't you want to be a part of it?  Jesus defeated death, and Jesus conquered the world!!  The more I am in this world the more I see that the presence of Jesus is needed MORE and MORE.  We cannot serve two master, we can only serve ONE in complete obedience.  So what is your other master?  Is it Money/Material Possessions/Status/Job/Relationship/etc?  The Bible tells us that we cannot serve two master, we must choose one.  So who or what is competing with the place of Jesus?  It is time to seek God and pray about it, and what the Holy Spirit reveals to you then it is time to repent and put Jesus back on the throne in your heart.

When you have Jesus as your personal Savior you want to be like him and you want to change.  Things of the "world" are not fun anymore and you feel more like an outcast.  You will realize that you don't fit in, in this world anymore.  Your eyes will be fully opened and you will see how you have been deceived and lied to.  Once you have this revelation it scares you because you can see that you haven't been living for God and you  have been living for yourself.  I am so thankful to Jesus for sticking it out with me when I wasn't saved and that I was able to accept him as my Savior and make him my Lord.  It scares me when I think about where I wold of went if I would of died when I didn't have Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  This thought should come across your mind and realize how much we don't deserve his love/grace/and mercy.  Once you realize that you didn't earn it you want to submit to him because he only has good for you and blessings.  When you walk in full obedience to him he only has blessings for you and he has a Perfect Will for you.  The Creator of the Universe designed you with a specific purpose that you are to fulfill and it is our job to seek him and walk it out.  So let us unite as brothers and sisters and stand up for Christ and walk boldly in full obedience!!

Who Wants Some Motivation......

After reading this list what is holding you back?? Nothing!!! Don't pick a day, start today!!!!

It is important to know that there are 3 parts: Workout, Diet, Mental

They all work hand in hand together and you will succeed when you understand it takes all 3!!

This quote is a personal one that I love and go by.  Everyone can feel what body parts jiggle when they run and I am going to run until I don't jiggle!!

What is your excuse now????  If he can do it, then you can do it!!!! Use what God gave you!!!!

What did you attempt on Christmas Day?

I don't usually post things like this on my blog, but I thought it would make people smile and laugh.  It is important to be silly and have fun.  This is just a snapshot to show what our family was doing on Christmas Day!!!

http://youtu.be/GXeYO1wLhFU

Speaking About Jesus.......

Are you truly free to speak about Jesus?  How about if you have alot of influence and in a higher position?  Is your speech filtered?  Our society has really become bold to where you can dress the way you want to dress, act the way you want to act, listen to whatever you choose, believe whatever you want to believe, and you don't need to give a reason why.  We see a society to where the "rules and morals" are slowly being erased.  You can see women now respecting themselves by putting their bodies on display for all to see with how short their clothing is or how low their clothing is.  We see men disrespecting women and treating them like an object. We see couples playing "house" without being married.  We see wives belittling their husbands and we see kids growing up in dysfunctional homes.  We see a society that has pushed Jesus out of schools, speech, and the constitution.  It seems the Constitution was good back then and now since times have gotten so fast paced, people feel that it needs to be altered and changed.  People think the same thing about the Bible.  People look at the Bible and think that it was good back in the day and that it is not alive today or can be applied today.  Do you know that the Bible is the same yesterday, today, and forever?  There is pure wisdom in the Bible!  If you apply the Bible you will live with the peace of Jesus in EVERY circumstance.  The world cannot promise that!!!!!!!  I am going to give a few examples of how you can say WHATEVER you want but when it comes to Jesus, you need to keep it to yourself.

I was watching this game show last night with my husband and they had to do a "timeline" of things that happened in order from beginning to end.  The person had to place all of the magazine covers in date order.  They happened to be "Rolling Stone" covers.  I don't read the magazine so I was shocked to see one of the covers.  They had the rap artist Kanye West on the cover of the magazine wearing the Crown of Thorns and portraying himself as Jesus.  He even had a nickname that mocks our Lord.  He has named his CD and mocks our Lord.  This is accepted why???????  Does he get to have freedom of speech because he is an artist and expressing himself?  If he is able to do that then why is the next point I am going to make not accepted??

The show Duck Dynasty is one of the most popular shows that you see on TV.  The father on the show Phil Robertson has been suspended from the show because of what he said in an interview.  Before I show what he said, let me give some background.  He has said out loud that he is a Christian and that they follow Jesus and read the Bible.  On their show you can see at the end of every episode they pray to Jesus.  In a few of the episodes they even quote scripture.  So the average viewer knows from watching one episode that they follow Jesus.  So why are people surprised when he quotes the Bible?  From him quoting the Bible he gets suspended why?? Because he follows Jesus and the world is slowly pushing out Jesus.  Here is the interview below:
“I love all men and women. I am a lover of humanity, not a hater,” Robertson said while leading the study.
“I have been immoral, drunk, high. I ran with the wicked people for 28 years and I have run with the Jesus people since and the contrast is astounding,” he said. “I tell people, ‘You are a sinner, we all are. Do you want to hear my story before I give you the bottom line on your story?’”
“Commonsense says we are not going to procreate the human race unless we have a man and a woman,” he said. “From the beginning Jesus said, ‘It is a man and a woman.’ Adam was made and Eve was made for this reason. They left their fathers and mothers and be united to become one flesh, that’s what marriage is all about.”
“Jesus will take sins away, if you’re a homosexual he’ll take it away, if you’re an adulterer, if you’re a liar, what’s the difference? If you break one sin you may as well break them all,” he said.

By this interview alone he has been suspended from the show because people are outraged that he quoted what the word of God says and that he doesn't agree with the worlds way.

Let us look at a verse in the Bible and see that it is being revealed RIGHT now as I write this:
For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts 2 Timothy 4:3

People today want to be their own Gods and pick and choose what they will follow or not follow. 

I could write pages and pages about examples but I just wanted to do two to show how extreme one is and how subtle one is.  The extreme one is accepted and the subtle one is suspended.  

We live in a fast pace world where there is ALOT going on behind the scenes that many people don't know and are deceived.  It says in the Bible that people perish for lack of knowledge.  Do you know the truth?  Are you living the truth?  Jesus is returning soon to take his people, are you one of them?  Do you speak Jesus with your mouth, but deny him by your lifestyle?  Get in the word and live it out!!! Stand for Jesus!!! 

Merry Christmas.....

I wanted to wish everyone all over the world, Merry Christmas!!  It is such a privelage and honor to be alive for another year to celebrate Our Saviors birth.  It seems like each year I fall more in love with Jesus and Christmas becomes special each year.  Let us remember the true reason for Christmas and that is CHRIST!!

 God loved the world so much that he gave his ONLY Son to die for us so that we might have eternal life.  Would you be able to give your child up for mankind?  How about mankind that didn't even acknowledge him?  This shows True Love and we need to learn "Agape" love.  We honestly feel that we know what real love is but the true definition of it is: God.  True love is doing something because you love someone so much and doing EVERYTHING and not expecting one thing in return.  All you do is keep giving love because you are love.  This is a type of love that is hard for us to wrap our heads around and understand.  When you celebrate Christmas this year remember what happened.  Remember that The God of the Universe humbled himself and came to our level and became human.  Jesus Christ walked our walk and experienced everything we experience.  We have a Savior that can truly identify with us and relate to us.

We should have no problem getting close to Our Savior, because we know that he understands.  Jesus Christ came down for you and for me.  Jesus Christ wants you to have eternal life and wants you to help lead other souls to him.  We can get in the cycle of thinking that we have all of the time in the world, when in fact we are not promised another day.  We need to love like we have never loved before, and stop wasting such precious God given moments.  Christmas in our society is all about Santa Claus and presents.  It is our job to keep Jesus alive in our homes.  We need to celebrate Jesus and what he did for mankind.  I love that during Christmas time wherever you go, you hear songs about Jesus being sung all over.  You hear songs about Jesus in malls, stores, restaurants, etc.  My husband and I were in Barnes and Nobles, and they had Christmas music playing and I just put my head back and closed my eyes.  I loved that Jesus was being sung about and people were hearing about Jesus.  I am so thankful that places play Christmas music and have songs singing about Jesus.

It seems more and more today, people are squeezing Jesus out of everything.  I am so thankful that Christmas music is still allowed to be played.  Let us honor Jesus and celebrate HIS birthday!!  I never understood why everyone gets presents on his birthday.  Let us remember that it is not about presents or the deals we can get on presents.  Sit down during Christmas as a family and hold hands and thank Our Savior and Bless His Mighty Name!!!  Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!